okay, i know, it's been a long morning. we've all been up since 3:00. we decided earlier upstairs that this is a blessing and we should take it as such, for those of you dear people that took three 3 hours to get here ks , i know the

goddesses of gods knows you are here. i'm the executive director and ceo of the california historical society. on behalf of everyone involved in this monumental effort i want to thank you very much for joining us. i'm joined by our executive vice-president, my incredible staff and team of volunteer members. it's my distinct honor to welcome you to the panama pacific centennial epa 100. [ applause ] . we at chs are deeply honored to help lead this historical pivotal moment in san francisco and

the state's past so together we can learn and inspire to create a more vibrant and equitable future. my gratitude to mr. mayor ed lee and ms. huggins, and stewards of this powerful place of fine arts and from at & t, our exhibition sponsor the hertz corporation, fred is here. centennial sponsors, wells fargo, ecology, town

school and so many people have sponsored this organization. the may beck foundation, richard pet ler is here right over there in that lovely blue shirt and truly a genius and you will hear from dan shine, the ceo and curator of innovation and an additional sponsor is scott of sterling bank. there he is, thank you, sir. i also want to extend a very special welcome to the job corps, two incredible women of esteemed presses kristin shine and mary and

all of you who braved the elements in joining us. we are bring together p pa 100.org. this went live a couple minutes ago look on your phones, as long as they are at & t phones. we are bringing businesses that will participate in the ppa 100 to participate in huge varieties of exhibitions, thrilling events, lectures, dances, the list goes on. these partners include the exploratorium, the san francisco public library the mechanics institute, the san francisco dance -- festival and so many more and together we are joined to telling the

many stories of the world fair a moment in history where san francisco stepped back and onto the world stage. think back with me about 100 years ago and close your eyes if you are tired, it's helpful. to an extraordinary set of exhibitions that filled this place, the master piece, the palace of fine arts. the fair covered 635 acres and the walls city a top basically we reclaimed bay land. think of domed palaces, palmed lined courts and monumental statutory. all of this arose miracle that over a decade occurred after the earthquake and fire. just in a few years

these entire acres were transformed and were the remarkable displays of innovation and being called electricity. the agriculture and despite the onset of world war i, 21 foreign nations built pavilions and joined the many millions of americans. if you were one of the people that came in december 20, 1915, you might gaze at the wonder of the tools of the light shows brought to this thing called electricity. you would have seen the model of the panama daniel -- canal and what san francisco fought to get from congress to celebrate the completion of the canal. you could have seen demonstrations of pageantries

and what it will bring to america and the world. it's now my honor to present the man as mayor ross and my mind that em bodies the dell against -- intelligence in the city like few ever has mayor ed lee. [ applause ] mayor edwin m. lee: thank you very much for the introduction and thank you and the california

historical society for your long work here. good morning, everyone. i'm going to try to mask my level of enthusiasm for this with hopefully some facts and acknowledgements. let me say that you know in my culture as many of you know when it rains, it's all about prosperity for everyone. i want to make sure everybody knows when i said that the world series would end the drought, i meant it. i want to repeat that again and again. but i want to say thank you, hello, everybody and welcome to this important milestone in our city's history. and i'm enthusiastic about this panama pacific international exposition we are celebrating today. i'm enthusiastic

about literally everybody i see in this audience whether it's with the arts organization, or education institutions, our writers and people that have talked about this city for so many years, you have to understand how important this is. i'm a student myself and i know that this city that i have the most kind of privilege for managing as a mayor is delicate as a city and one in history, and to be able to kind of take a look 100 years ago and try to imagine yourself in this city 100 years ago with some of these artifacts that just came off the manufacturing line at the time, or to take a look at this architecture that bernard may back was so

famous for during the time they were blending the arts with real lives of people and to suggest that this is among us 100 years later and that there is something that links this history over 100 years and that word that time and time again you hear me say about today. innovation did not start 3 years ago with mayor lee. that's another fact i want to kind of dispel. innovation was over 100 years ago and it started with so many people in san francisco suggesting through this fair that they started that we could celebrate going forward our imagination of what was then, now and tomorrow. that's the t and t of this team that we have to

celebrate. i'm excited for it because there is an opportunity with all the sponsors that we have and with the enthusiasm with charlotte and donna and others bring to this. the imagination that innovation hangar brings, the historic evolution of at & t that we get to lead is all a part of this historic is documenting and one thing i think our youth need to understand where we as people come from in san francisco and what history allows us to be that innovation wasn't just something that an app discovered. it was the spirit of people that have been here for generations. and over 100 years ago if i get to teach the young

tech kids what history was then hopefully we appreciate what innovation was across many industries across to board about the spirit of people and what we do for each other to bring in a strong community. you are going to find this out if you read this book that i have just been handed that's going to be part of this celebration, the jewel, a city that it is called. i take you back to this very building that we are in. the good symbol of what bernard may back designed this full arts and suggest to you that this began that movement 100 years ago and now the help of some 1200 donors, the may beck foundation along with recreation and

parks department that have done so much even when i was director, phil was there, that we forged together this partnership to include this $20 million renovation in detail; in historic detail, historic confirmation of something that the beautiful and historically significant. that's part of the celebration. the palace of fine arts is already transforming itself to a show case center to show then and tomorrow theme that was in the 50s continues to be demonstrated today and as we go forward we can have another hundred years of innovate spirit. the california historic society the may beck foundation,

innovation hangar and at & t are all partnering with our recreation and parks department to recapture this of this national exhibition. i want to say a big thank you to all the organizers. it takes an incredible effort to remind people where we came from. there is a lot of handout -- of hours that people spent for this opportunity. i want to thank all the sponsors and all the organizers in your leadership in recognizing this important time in our city's history. i want to remind everybody if you want to know more about this history, just talk to charlotte. she was there. her boyfriends from the past are not here anymore, but she was here. [ laughter ]

i am proud that we are celebrating this. it's going to be a lot of years of celebrating events, activities that are representing more that be 35 bay area cultural educational exhibits, activities, organizations that reflect the pan pacific international historic significance. i say the then, tomorrow theme will be exciting for people to understand and to learn from. i'm excited for what's going to happen right here at this palace of fine arts that will kickoff all of these wonderful exhibits. i want to give a special thanks to at & t because there is a historic significance to their evolution as a phone company. when i ask, can i get one of those

historic phones when i ask people in my office to remind people that innovation wasn't just here yesterday. it's been here a long long time. but most importantly to celebrate the constant generations of people that have been before us that exhibited this wonderful innovation spirit that is san francisco. i'm going to welcome and encourage all of you and all of the audience to bring your families here to san francisco, to bring to all of these events, the visitors, your friends. i'm going to encourage my daughters, not everything is in new york. you have to come here and share in this experience. there are plenty of activities beginning with the celebration of february 20th and in june i get to host the

conference of mayor's and i'm going to say that i'm proud to be the mayor of this innovation city and they will agree with me. it just didn't happen. it's all about the history of all of our cities and this wonderful one that we did this world fair back 100 years ago to kickoff the entire country if not the entire world as panama canal was celebrated and this city recovered from the 1906 earthquake and there is a lot to understand and when you do, then i think we appreciate this city even more. this is unique, this centennial it will be the focus of our city for the entire year. i want to say happy holidays! keep writing about this. xeep exhibiting and keep talking about this because it will be worth our every celebration.

i want to thank the recreation and parks director for being here and disobeying the law. this is part of the rules. i hope you feel my enthusiasm because this is historically significant to so many people. i will talk about as well the things that happened 100 years ago significant to my own cultural heritage what happened then and how we are more inclusive, more diverse and more accepting of the people across the world this our city. this is what recognizing history does and advancing this generation is all about. thank you for being here and thank you for celebrating and thank you for being part of this wonderful

wonderful centennial. >> thank you so much mayor lee for your support, for your guidance and your wisdom. it's now my pleasure to introduce phil ginsberg. recreation and parks has had a long history in san francisco and john maclaren played a critical role in this site for this fair and launched this ground and actually he won at golden gate park and phil can a test to that park's extreme beauty. please help me in welcoming phil ginsberg recreation and parks. >> good morning, everybody, on behalf of the recreation and parks i'm very happy to stand before you today to kickoff this wonderful

celebration. we are proud and extremely humble stewards of this site. the mayor spoke of this celebration then and now and tomorrow. it's incredibly significant. parks are more than swing sets and playgrounds. as joyous as they are, they are part of our natural cultural heritage, the place that connects the then, now and tomorrow. when we think about what's before us and commemorating this celebration and this site is incredible then now and tomorrow story as itself as noted back in 1915 when the exposition took place. more than 11 800-0000 people from all around the world came to a park. today we have

millions of visitors to golden gate park and some of our other incredible cultural attractions. the then for us also celebrates the decades and decades that the exploratorium was in this site where millions of people and families and kids passed through this very space to explore and to learn and to focus on community. the then has also been about more than 40 years that the theatre just across the way here has hosted community music and theatre events again welcoming our diverse community from all around the city. the now, is i hangar and the incredible celebration that is going to take place and the now that we are so proud to be focusing on right here. the now is the joyous and

really really remarkable park that this has become thanks to our partnership with the may back foundation. the mayor noted $22 million exacting renovation of the grounds and lagoon and rotunda. the tomorrow, in addition to this year long celebration is a big question mark for us. what will this space be for the next 50-100 years is? we don't know. what we do know is whatever this space becomes is going to honor the incredible history and culture of this site and invest it and steward it to make sure we celebrate the bicentennial. i want to acknowledge the california historical society who has been a

fantastic partner and we are so grateful for them for taking this on and taking the time and attention this site deserves. this is a pop up version of what's going to open in february and you can already see with ka boom you can see this place come to life. of course we want to thank our presenting partners at & t, thank you, ken. a special shout out to my team because this morning there was so much prosperity here, mayor. there was about 2 feet of prosperity outside the big walls and you all would have needed a canoe to cross over the sea of prosperity to get here and the many men and women who take care of this

place have been out here since 6:30 a.m. this morning to make sure the joyous amount of water around here had parted, the sea had parted. i wanted to thank the crew and i want to thank my partnership and property management team, dina is here and cassandra is leading the process to help us identify who the next partner will be in this space, our public affairs team, like this endeavor we are a team at recreation and parks and we are very proud to contribute. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much phil and all recreation and parks team. you are a dendrite -- delight and pleasure to work with. it's now my

pleasure to introduce at & t in california in 2005, we would like to thank you for allah -- affairs and many of his colleagues are here today. just about 36,000 employees, give or take and he does it with grace and dignity. it's my pleasure to welcome our sponsor ken mcmillie. [ applause ] >> good morning and what a pleasure it is to be in such a stunning stunning building and park. thank you so much and thank you to the california historical society and innovation hangar and san francisco recreation and parks department for this wonderful celebration. i also want to thank mayor lee and many of

those in this community with us today. we all know that the pan pacific exposition was the change in san francisco not only because it revealed the city but it continues to show case the energy and spirit that san francisco is a terminology leader. we are proud to be the sponsor of this exciting event celebrating this city in a country rich of innovation. it was right here in san francisco leading to the world fair in 1915 that at & t initiated the first ever transcontinental telephone call and it wasn't an iphone. the telecommunication industry in the world we live today. it was in san

francisco that the 100 years of celebration and this will exhibit the programs throughout the long celebration. we also know this innovation depends on our youth and will inspire the years to tackle the challenges of the technology base economy and that's why we are glad to make an additional $50,000 contribution for the program executed by the california historical society and partnership with the san francisco recreation and parks department after school program and the national parks service. [ applause ] this program willen game engage hundreds of